Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

Image. Advertisement:

NSW library seeks dogs for reading program

Lake Macquarie City Library in regional NSW is calling on pet owners and their dogs to participate in its Building Reading Confidence for Kids (BaRK) literacy program, reports Government News.

The eight-week program aims to improve literacy and confidence for children with reading difficulties by having them read aloud to a trained therapy dog. The program has been so successful that more dogs are now required to meet demand.

Macquarie City Library became the first public library in Australia to trial reading assistance using therapy dogs when it launched the program in 2008.

As previously reported by Books+Publishing, a branch of the Yarra Plenty Regional Library in Victoria runs a similar program called Doggy Tales.

 

Category: Library news